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Oxford mom wants safer playground materials

OXFORD – A McDonough mom is pushing the Oxford Academy and Central School District to remove what she says is a harmful playground surface after her 12-year-old son was injured behind the middle school last month.

Ann-Margaret Simpson’s son, Bryon, a fifth grader at Oxford Primary, stumbled forward getting off a swing set April 18 and upon breaking his fall in the surrounding mulch, was stabbed by a 4-inch piece of wood in the right hand.

Simpson wants the district to replace the wood mulch, used at both the middle and primary schools, with sand or shredded rubber, she told Superintendent Randall Squier and the Board of Education Monday.

“Mulch is supposed to be thin, fine thread wood,” said Simpson, pointing out a number of roughly four- and five-inch shards on the ground where her son was injured. “This is not.”